Title

Author

Year of Publication

2014

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

College

Engineering

Department

Chemical and Materials Engineering

First Advisor

Dr Stephen Rankin

Abstract

In this work we study mixtures of cationic surfactant (CTAB) and sugar based surfactant(s) (octyl beta-D-glucopyranoside (C8G1), dodecyl maltoside (C12G2) and octyl beta-D-xylopyranoside (C8X1)) to understand the non-ideal thermodynamic behavior of the mixtures of cationic and non-ionic surfactants in water and synthesis of imprinted materials. The thermodynamics of micellization, mixing and dilution of these systems are studied using Isothermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC) and the experimental data obtained are modeled with a pseudo-phase separation model with non-ideal mixing described by regular solution theory. It is shown that a model accounting for enthalpy of demicellization and enthalpy of dilution based on McMillan-Mayer model is able to fit ITC data set for CTAB-C8G1 system with varying mole fractions.

In addition to measuring non-ideal mixing behavior, mixtures of cationic and saccharide-based surfactants are of interest for the molecular imprinting of oxide materials. Mixtures of CTAB and either C8G1 or C8X1 are utilized to prepare nonporous adsorbent materials which act as selective adsorbents towards the headgroup of the saccharide surfactant. The approach is based on the Stöber silica particle synthesis process in which surfactants are added to soft particles present at the onset of turbidity to imprint their surface. This approach is shown to yield particles displaying selective adsorption for sugars with different number of carbons, but also provide enantioselective adsorption of targeted saccharides. Enantioselectivity of D-glucose, D-xylose and D-maltose is demonstrated by imprinting with C8G1, C8X1 and C12G2, respectively. The imprinting technique provides the first example of selective adsorption based on non-covalent imprinting of silica for sugars.

The mixed surfactant are also used to synthesize templated porous materials incorporating titanium which are used for epoxidation catalysis. The porous materials obtained have high surface area, uniform pore sizes in the mesopore range, and provided high selectivity and activity towards epoxidation of styrene. Titanosilicate thin films are also synthesized using cationic and saccharide surfactant mixtures to understand the incorporation of the titanium into the porous material. It is demonstrated that large amounts of isolated, tetracoordinated titanium sites can be incorporated into mesoporous silica-based materials via the complexation of the titanium precursor with a saccharide-based surfactant.